Tag Archives: Business Interruption

If you were flying United Airlines Sunday night, chances are you may have been delayed.

A computer outage grounded all of United’s domestic flights for more than two hours, according to this NBC report, though the glitch affected only aircraft on the ground and did not impact international flights.

Allianz warns that in today’s interconnected industrial world non-physical or non-damage causes of business interruption (BI) are becoming a much bigger issue.

Physical perils like fire and explosion and natural catastrophes are still the top causes of BI that businesses fear most, but preparing for non-damage perils is becoming increasingly critical.

This shift in BI risk means that intangible hazards, such as a cyber incident or interdependencies from global networks, can cause large revenue losses for companies without inflicting property damage.

With this ever-expanding range of BI risks, it’s good to know insurers have you covered.

Non-Damage BI (NDBI) insuring loss of income and ongoing costs from interruption of business caused by situations where there is no physical damage to the insured, the supplier or customer and there is no BI claim to be made, this coverage indemnifies a business for lost revenue due to disruption

Data Driven (Cyber) BI insuring loss of income and ongoing costs from interruption of business due to unavailability of data and computer systems caused by hacking, technical failure or human error.

Additional resources on covering losses with business interruption insurance are available from the Insurance Information Institute here.

But there must be direct physical damage to the property from a covered event for a business to be reimbursed under the policy.

A good example of a covered event would be a fire or windstorm that might damage property thereby causing a business to lose income.

A mosquito-borne infectious disease does not appear to meet the threshold for property damage under a traditional business interruption policy therefore.

In addition, while businesses may lose income due to fewer customers and tourists visiting an area because of fear over the Zika outbreak and in response to travel warnings, legal experts say there are several reasons why traditional business interruption insurance policies are unlikely to respond.

Some businesses may have an extension to their property insurance policy that could provide some business interruption coverage for non-damage scenarios (i.e. where there is no physical damage to an insured’s property), but limitations and exceptions to this coverage may apply.

The economic impact of aversion behavior may be significantly greater than the direct economic impact from sickness and death, the WEF said.

For example in 2015 the World Bank estimated a potential loss in GDP of more than US$1.6 billion in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as a result of the Ebola epidemic, and more than US$500 million across the rest of the continent. This was based on an erosion in consumer and investor confidence and disruptions to travel and cross-border trade.

Its analysis of more than 1,800 large BI claims from 68 countries between 2010 and 2014 found that business interruption now typically accounts for a much higher proportion of the overall loss than was the case 10 years ago.

Both severity and frequency of BI claims is increasing, AGCS warns.

The average large BI property insurance claim is now in excess of â‚¬2 million (â‚¬2.2 million: $2.4 million), some 36 percent higher than the corresponding average property damage claim of just over â‚¬1.6 million ($1.8 million), the global claims review found.

The vast majority of BI losses are not caused by natural catastrophes, with non-natural hazard events such as human error or technical failure accounting for 88 percent of BI losses by value.

Reported loss estimates from the largest non-natural catastrophe BI events across the insurance industry during 2015 total more than $7 billion so far, with the Tianjin loss potentially accounting for almost half this total.

Fire and explosion is the top cause of BI loss around the globe by value (2010-2014), with each incident analyzed averaging â‚¬1.7m ($1.9 million) in BI costs alone, but there are some major differences regionally.

Storm and flood related losses are notable in Asia, highlighting the region’s continuing economic development and increasing exposure to natural hazards.

Storm is also the top cause of BI loss in the Caribbean and Central America region, accounting for one-third of insurance claims by value.